Wednesday, June 25, 2014

Back in Berlin

After I returned from the workshop with Jan and Jean, I spent a total of 14 hours at home before setting off again, for a one-and-a-half-day bike trip with friends from New Zealand, close to Lake Constance. (That's where the found art came from.) I returned Wednesday night, and on the next day my husband and I took advantage of the fact that our son was away on a boys' camp for a week, offering us a full day of sailing, just the two of us. We hadn't had that in years.
And the next day we went to the theatre, really making the most of it before our son came back home.

Amidst all this back and fro, unpacking, putting things back in order, it wasn't easy to put in a bit of work too.
And yesterday I loaded the boxes of fabric into the car so that today I could set off to Berlin. I will again be selling fabrics at the textile art berlin, on Saturday and Sunday.
Supporting quilter husband had made sure that in moments of hesitation, when I even thought I might cancel my participation and stay home, I did not do that, but instead extended my visit by two days of sightseeing and enjoying ahead of time.
So here I am, staying in a hostel close to the center, because the Hotel Bogota, which I fell so in love with last year, was closed in December,

All you need is ... a bed, a chair, separate facilities...

and looking forward to two days of total hedonism in my favorite German (big) city - second only to Freiburg...
For starters, I went to "Kulturkaufhaus Dussmann", browsing the shelves, and stacking up on books and CDs.

Then I decided to walk back to my hostel, instead of taking the underground.
Suddenly I found myself in front of Checkpoint Charlie - schocked that now the golden arches are located right across from it. But I guess that's the walks of the world.

If they didn't have these maps around, today you would not notice anymore where the wall once divided the city.

The American checkpoint Charlie replica

Reading the documentation on the building fence that surrounds the 'public viewing' area for soccer games, I started getting a bit philosopic about choice of words and how they shape our thinking.

"Defending western democracy" against the communism of the Soviet Union - isn't that a pre-stage to 'war on terrorism' and 'definding out interests in the Hindukush'? And where has this all led us to - is that what we wanted it to be like?
But as there wasn't anybody there to discuss these things with, I just bought a helping of chicken curry from a small Indian food stand located right next to the line of the former wall, and then came back.

International food not to be found anywhere near where I live... delicious!